Wanna order your Ground2K4 background bitmap for free?

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Thanks for taking the time to look at this, Dick. This is precisely the reason why I avoid those executable files - just too much grief. Do you have any information in those files as to the identity of the designers? Just curious, as I thought I knew most of the people working on the area.Here are a few more images of modified islands in the Lesser Antilles.This is St. Bart, definitely my favorite island and a true pilot's airfield:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/67115.gifThe default island is the LARGE one. If you look closely, you will see that because of the error in size and placement of the land mass, the runway is in the middle of the default island, when it should be up against the Bay St. Jean, as shown in the smaller modified island.Here is Barbuda:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/67116.gifIn this image, the default island is the SMALL one. I have outlined Codrington airfield in yellow, in order to show that with the correct representation of the island, the DEFAULT runway is now in the water! So, I suppose this is one of the rare misplaced runways in Flight Simulator.So, please, Holger, if you are still willing, keep those bitmaps coming.Best regards.Luis

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Luis.Here are the authors of the antilles scenery:- Islands outlines, landclass, airports and AFCAD : BOURDON Cyril- Le Raizet airport : DELBLOND Christian - Detailed mesh : LAURENT Jean-Gabriel- Installation program and bug tracking : LOYEZ Beno

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi again, Luis.The file causing the problems with the Antilles project is an AFCAD2 file ( AF2_GANS.bgl )... I reworked the file to delete 2 oddly located Start Positions, and all now seems OK. For some reason, that original file crashes the sim near the Martinique airport, when using GPS. Who would have guessed.Several default files in "C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9SceneryNameScenery" have been deactivated by giving tham an ".ant" extension. Nothing appears replaced there... just deactivated.That should have been expressly explained in the readme. Simmers might just try to deactivate the scenery through the Scenery Library, and then the default Scenery won't display! 15 files are deactivated by the ".ant" extension, but only 3 are HP files that would have required that... the rest could have been handled with exclusion BGLs.All that aside, the scenery looks very good. I don't know the source of their mesh or line/poly data, so I couldn't judge the accuracy.Dick

[Guest victorwest]

Now here's probably a really dumb question from a complete beginner on this subject!Could I load Holger's files (via the Ground2K4 utility) straight into FS9 or would they look really stupid without some manipulation from me?Victor

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Victor,Not dumb at all, but a very good question.Ground2K4 is a drawing utility. It lets us draw new land masses, bodies of water, roads, rivers, and such terrain features. Nothing is done automatically - we must draw all the elements ourselves. But, this is easy enough thanks to Ground2K4, although very large projects can be tedious. But, hey, this is a pastime, and that certainly passes the time.Holger has very kindly provided relatively sharp images with their exact coordinates that can be used as a background in Ground2K4. Just draw the terrain elements over their correct location in the background (satellite) image. The result is surprisingly accurate and detailed terrain that can be very realistic - good for VFR flights.For examples of this, see Holger's various projects in the AvSim library (sch

[Guest crashaz]

Hey Holger... any chance of any quality Philippine Island shots in your collection or findings?I am interested in reworking the islands.Thanks!

[Holger 0]

Hi all:James, I'm certainly willing to pre-process one or more images of the Phillipines for you. If you read through my posts above you'll see that you have to make a couple of decisions (file type, color composite type, area of interest) and let me know the specifics. Also, you can do an image search at GLCF yourself - http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp - pick a scenery that looks good for you, let me now its name/identifier, and I'll do the rest.Victor, there is another option for using the satellite images I've uploaded: as photoreal textures. Obviously this would only work with the true-color composites and you'd have to learn how to use the MS Resample.exe and other utilities for compiling photoreal textures. The disadvantage is that the 30-m data are pretty coarse and result in blurry textures, though they can look great from altitudes >5000ft AGL. Also, one can combine the 15-m greyscale images with the 30-m color images with the help of photoediting software to increase the resolution: bicubic resample to 15-m, then split the RBG into HSL channels, then substitute the lightness channel with the 15-m image, then re-combine the HSL channels to RGB. A while back, I posted screenshots of my photoreal experiments here: http://portal.fsgenesis.net/modules.php?se...=view_album.phpThe reason I haven't done anything with the tests is that I don't like the absence of autogen, the lack of seasons, and the huge file size (and thus loading times and tendency to loose sharpness). However, if anyone wnats to give it a try with one of the image sets I uploaded - go wild :-)Cheers, Holger

[Guest victorwest]

Thanks for the answers. I think it all sounds a bit beyond me at the moment!!Holger, I think photographic scenery really comes into itself in mountainous and other unpopulated areas. In that instance, the lack of autogen shouldn't be as much of a problem as it might be over populated areas.Victor

[Guest bnick]

Holger - Hi, I've been reading and enjoying this posting since it started several weeks ago, and have been wanting to ask for assistance in gaining an image but haven't, till now...I sure could use a Sat Image for my area which is:NW: N45.38.89 SE: N45.27.68 W-122.47.87 W-122.22.38Thanks for any assistance you may be able offer...Bnick

[Guest digger]

Hi Holger,I am working on mesh scenery for Egypt based on DTED1 mesh data. Sadly, though, the existing landclasses for Egypt, from Microsoft and others as well, are totally unfit for this level of detail. So I couldn

[Guest webin]

Hey Holger,Sorry if this is beginning to sound like a "me too" parade, but if your still doing the preprocessing for Ground2K4, I'm finally ready to step in line with my request.Since I'm a VFR student pilot, I'm using lots of ground references for my practice flights. I'd like to revamp the roads and rivers in the southern half of the Willamette Valley.Coordinates are:if 1

[victorwest2 0]

Holger, are your files available anywhere else at the moment, whilst the Avsim file library is down?

[Holger 0]

Hi all:Victor, sorry but the packages are only available at Avsim, unless FSPlanet or FSFreeware have decided to grab them ;-)Looks like I have my work cut out for me...I have one image package (Mt Rainier to Tacoma, req by Eric Norton) waiting for the Avsim library to leave the "Snow White stage", and then the following to-do list:- Philippine Islands, if (!) I get the necessary information from James- Nile Valley- Portland, OR area- Willamette ValleyA reminder for those of you primarily interested in urban areas and road networks. Make sure that you check the NIMA website for availability of 10-m SPOT images. They are in the correct projection and can be downloaded and used as is in Ground2K4. The site is: http://geoengine.nima.mil/ Click on NGA coverages, then DOI 10m, then zoom in to your area of interest. The Pacific Northwest isn't covered but a good chunk of the central and eastern States, as well as most of Europe are.Cheers, Holger

[Guest Giorgio]

Hi, just a quick post to say I've finished my CFS2 project for Malta and Gozo (uploaded to simviation, till Avsim recovers). I'm quite satisfied of the result, that Holger's bitmap substantially helped to finalize. Now a question: as CFS2 does not use automatic flattens (which is good), no matter how precise the positioning will be runways made with Ground2k are going to show bumps here and there. Any cure, without having to flatten a large area? Better said: is there an application that allows microflattens, as big (as little) as a runway?Giorgio

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Giorgio.You should go to Martin Wright's Website:http://fly.to/mwgfx/Look for mkafd2. It is designed to make airfields for CFS2.Dick